ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,553,493, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to NISSAN MOTOR Co. LTD. (Yokohama, Japan) and EXEDY Corp. (Neyagawa, Japan).
"Damper apparatus" was invented by Makoto Ogata (Kanagawa, Japan), Masayuki Ootani (Kanagawa, Japan), Takeshi Senoue (Neyagawa, Japan) and Masahiro Nakatani (Neyagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A friction generating mechanism of a damper apparatus includes a bushing in contact with an annular friction surface of a spline hub, and a cone spring arranged in a compressed state between a retaining plate and the bushing. A first load support surface of the bushing and a second load support surface of the retaining ...